Development of Lightweight Moving Table for Linear Motor using Composite Materials

Linear motors are efficient mechanism that offers high speed and positioning accuracy. By eliminating mechanical transmission mechanisms, much higher speeds and greater acceleration can be achieved without backlash or excessive friction. However, an important disadvantage of linear motor system is its high power loss and heating up of motor and neighboring machine components on operation. Therefore, it is necessary to design moving table with high stiffness, high efficiency and light weight construction. This paper presents the development of moving table using composite material. In order to develop light weight construction of moving table, finite element analysis is performed to find best moving table construction and composite stacking sequence. NASTRAN and MINITAB were used as the optimizer. A prototype for the moving table using composite material was created.